The village of Aurora epitomizes Finger Lakes life and charm—at once quaint and quirky, intellectual and lighthearted, removed from the world yet completely full of life.

Aurora’s history is as long and as complicated as America itself. Originally settled by the Cayuga tribe of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Nation, Aurora was first called “Deawendote,” meaning “Village of the Constant Dawn”—a name echoed by the early Anglo-American settlers who dubbed it “Aurora” after the goddess of the dawn. The village was also known as Peachtown, because of an orchard of some 1500 trees, destroyed in the Sullivan campaign of 1779.

Since that early moment, a parade of characters has enriched the story of Aurora—Quakers and Revolutionary War veterans, Abolitionists and Suffragettes, farmers and vintners, entrepreneurs and intellectuals. Retaining an air that is historically informed yet fully present in today’s world, Aurora is distinctive—and distinctly Finger Lakes.